This invention relates to a gaming machine. More particularly, the invention relates to a gaming machine and to an improvement to a game played on such a gaming machine.
Players who regularly play gaming machines quickly tire of particular games and therefore it is necessary for manufacturers of these machines to develop innovative game features which add interest to the games. In so doing, it is hoped to keep players amused and therefore willing to continue playing the games as well as to attract new players.
Also, with the growth that has occurred in the gaming machine market, there is intense competition between manufacturers to supply various existing and new venues. When selecting a supplier of gaming machines, the operator of a venue will often pay close attention to the popularity of various games with their patrons. Therefore, gaming machine manufacturers are keen to devise games and game features which are popular with the players as a mechanism for improving sales, retaining customers and attracting new customers.
According to the invention, there is provided a gaming machine having a display means and a game control means arranged to control images displayed on the display means, the game control means being arranged to play a wagering game wherein at least one random event is caused to be displayed on the display means and, if a predefined winning event occurs, the machine awards a prize, the gaming machine being characterized in that at least one representation of a playing piece of a predetermined board game, where each type of such playing piece has a predefined movement pattern in said board game, is displayed, the, or each, representation of the playing piece having its predefined movement pattern as it applies in the board game, and at, at least an end position to which said representation of the playing piece moves, the control means performs an operation on an underlying symbol of the wagering game.
Preferably, the gaming machine includes a plurality of representations of playing pieces, each playing piece functioning as a substitute symbol. Hence, the operation performed by the control means is to cause the representation of the playing piece to act as a substitute for the underlying, standard symbol of the game.
The control means may make a determination, at each position to which each representation of the playing piece moves, as to whether or not the playing piece is to act as a substitute for the underlying symbol. The control means may be pre-programmed to make the determination so that, in effect, the determination is predetermined. Instead, the control means may make the determination at the time the representation of the playing piece moves to a position.
The board game may be a chess game and the representations of playing pieces may then be representations of chess pieces, each of which functions as a substitute symbol, and each of which moves according to its normal movement pattern in the chess game. For ease of explanation, each substitute symbol shall be referred to as a xe2x80x9cchess piecexe2x80x9d.
The wagering game is, preferably, a spinning reel game. The invention will be described below with reference to its application to a spinning reel wagering game.
The display means may include a conventional display of spinning reels such as, for example, five reels each displaying three display positions or four reels each displaying four positions. Instead, the display means may include a matrix of display positions where each display position displays a single symbol at a time.
Where the chess piece can move in a number of directions from its initial display position, the control means may make a determination as to the direction in which the chess piece is to move. The determination may be a random determination.
When the chess piece moves according to its movement pattern it may replace any standard symbol in a display position in the movement pattern of the chess piece to which the chess piece moves and may act as a substitute for such standard symbol. Instead, when the chess piece moves from its initial display position to another position in its normal movement pattern, a determination may be made by the control means, when the chess piece is at said other position, as to whether or not a substitution is to be made and, if a substitution is to be made, the chess piece acts as a substitute for the underlying symbol. If the determination is that no substitution is to be made, no substitution of the underlying symbol takes place and, if applicable, the chess piece moves to its following position in its movement pattern.
Still further, at each position to which the chess piece moves, a prize, if applicable, may be paid when the chess piece moves to that position.
If the chess piece moves from a previous position to a further position in its normal movement pattern, the chess piece may continue acting as a substitute in the previous position only if a representation of the chess piece remains at that previous position.